Peru

Regionalism and Political Divisions

The formidable mountain ranges, deep chasms, and
deserts that
partition the habitable regions of Peru contribute greatly
to the
formation and maintenance of political and social
identities by
facilitating or obstructing communication, as well as by
creating
economic diversity through zonal specializations.
Archaeologists
and ethnohistorians have identified some forty-four
different
highland cultures and thirty-eight more in coastal valleys
that
existed at the time of the rise of the Inca Empire in the
fifteenth century. Tawantinsuyu (Land of the Four
Quarters)
retained these preexisting ethnogeographic zones in one
form or
another, according to anthropologist Michael Edward
Moseley,
establishing at least eighty ethnically distinct political
provinces throughout the empire's vast territory.

The policies of the Tawantinsuyu presaged subsequent
geopolitical territorial arrangements. The "quarters" were
unequal in size and population, but roughly corresponded
to the
cardinal directions. Each region began with its cobbled
roadway
leaving the "navel" of the city of Cusco, whose perimeters
shaped
a symbolic Andean puma. To the north, Chinchaysuyu
encompassed
most of the coast and highlands of modern Peru, from
Nazca, and
eventually with conquest, to what is now northern Ecuador.
In
terms of the divisions of the Inca Empire, 68 percent of
Peruvians in 1990 lived in Chinchaysuyu. To the south
stretched
the vast region of the puna and Lake Titicaca Basin called
the
Collasuyu. With the Inca conquests, the Collasuyu quarter
extended to the Río Maule in what is now central Chile. To
the
east and west were two relatively small quarters, the
Antisuyu
and Cuntisuyu, respectively. The former occupied the
forested
semitropical highland region called Montaña, and the
latter, the
arid mountains and coast encompassing present-day Arequipa
and
adjacent departments. Seen in this perspective, 41 percent
of the
people lived in four departments occupying the central
region of
the country, with 27 percent in the northern area, 23
percent in
the south, and 8 percent in the Amazonian departments of
the east
in 1990. These four modern quarters of Peru often have
been
utilized in the context of planning studies.

The Spaniards reorganized the Tawantinsuyu on
discovering
that the highland Inca capitals at Cusco and Cuenca
(Ecuador) and
their own first choice of Jauja near present-day Huancayo
suited
neither their physiological nor political needs. When they
founded Lima, the Spaniards turned the Inca spatial
concepts
upside down: centrality and place were reoriented as Cusco
became
a province and no longer was the "navel of the universe"
from
which all roads departed. Despite this change, Spanish
viceregal
organization educed its structure from longstanding
ethnolinguistic and ecological realities. The Spaniards
formed
provinces (
corregimientos--see Glossary),
which later became intendancies (intendencias), as well as
Catholic dioceses or parishes.

With independence, the colonial territories were again
redefined, but in most cases, the "new"
politico-administrative
boundaries still recalled ancient cultural and linguistic
outlines. The republic carried forward many operational
aspects
of the colonial administrative units. Throughout their
national
history, Peruvians have demonstrated a propensity to
revise their
political affairs both with respect to leadership and the
boundaries within the nation. In 1980 the department of
Ucayali
was created by splintering off two provinces from the
Selva
department of Loreto, a reflection of development and
population
increases in that immense tropical region. Moreover, after
the
census in 1981, six new provinces in Cajamarca, Ancash,
and
Ucayali departments and twenty new districts were created
in
various parts of the country through legislative acts. The
new
districts included six in the populous highland department
of
Cajamarca; three each in Ucayali, Puno, and Ancash; two in
the
province of Lima; and others in the departments of Huánuco
and
Cusco. Each time a census occurs, political and social
identities
are further refined, usually building on old traditions of
similitude, as well as a desire for separate political
representation and control.

The result was a nation divided into a political
hierarchy of
24 departments, 159 provinces, and 1,717 districts, each
with its
urbanized capital symbolized by a plaza bordered by a
"mother
church" and municipal office. Peruvians invariably
identify
themselves as being from one of these divisions, as the
place of
birth, and thus everyone carries a locality identity as a
limeño from Lima, a chalaco from Callao, a
cuzqueño from Cusco, a huaracino from
Huaraz, and
so forth, down to the smallest hamlet. The political
fissioning
thus reflects a strong geocultural identity and bonding,
manifested by the establishment and activities of
thousands of
regional and local clubs and associations by migrants from
these
places who live in cities throughout the country.

Provincial migrants, especially those in greater Lima,
play
important and often key roles in the creation of new
political
divisions back in their homelands, as was the case by 1990
in the
highland district of Santo Toribio in the province of
Huaylas.
The new district was the result of political antagonisms
originating in colonial times between the small mestizo
district
capital of Huaylas and its rural hinterland of Santo
Toribio.
After more than sixty years of plots and counterplots in
Lima and
in the patria chica (hometown or "little
homeland"), the
partisans of Santo Toribio, represented by migrants in
Lima,
finally won out over the Huaylas district lobby made up of
migrants from the town that sought to maintain district
unity.

In this maneuvering, the national political parties
were used
as the fulcrum on which the scales were tipped. The
municipal
government of Huaylas was held by members of the Popular
Action
(Acción Popular--AP) party, whereas the Santo Toribio
interests
were aligned with the American Popular Revolutionary
Alliance
(Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana--APRA) party,
which
took power nationally under Alan García Pérez (president,
1985-
90). This scenario is replicated throughout the highlands
and is
at the core of virtually all such alterations in political
boundaries. In most cases, the imbroglio develops as rural
villagers, native Americans, and cholos vie for
power with
the mestizo townspeople who have dominated them for
centuries.

The same struggle has accompanied the dramatic growth
of
greater Lima, to which migrants from the provinces have
gone to
seek access to power, as well as education and jobs.
Understanding the political structure of Lima is in itself
a
study in the process of empowerment. The city of Lima is
actually
a collection of municipalities. Instead of the two
municipal
districts of colonial time--Lima and Rímac--by 1961 Lima
contained fifteen district municipalities, and by 1990 it
had
grown to thirty-three, all the result of migration. Like
all
their provincial counterparts, each municipal district has
its
plaza, elected mayor and council, and municipal functions.
The
government of the province of Lima unites them and
coordinates
the metropolis as an urban entity. The rest of
metropolitan Lima
consists of the constitutional province of Callao, the old
colonial port. Callao is fused with the capital by a
continuous
blanket of housing projects, squatter settlements, and
industries
through which one passes en route to Jorge Chávez
International
Airport from Lima. Even so, in early 1991 there were still
small
patches of irrigated farmland at the northern fringe of
Callao
Province, awaiting the next spurt of urban growth to
engulf them.

The administrative system of departments, provinces,
and
districts is under the central authority of the national
executive, that is, the president and prime minister. As
such,
the decisions and policy inevitably and ultimately descend
from a
government overwhelmed by the needs, demands, and power of
Lima.
The centralization of power is resented and regarded as
anachronistic, a problem that has provoked debate since
1860
about the wisdom of decentralization and how it might be
accomplished.

The reorganization decree promulgated by the García
government in March 1987 put forth a plan to decentralize
the
nation and establish new administrative zones, regrouping
the
present twenty-four departments into twelve larger regions
with
legislative, administrative, and taxing powers
(see Local and Regional Government
, ch. 4). Interestingly, the names
Inca, Wari
(Huari), and Chavín have been applied to areas where those
ancient cultures once thrived. If the system becomes fully
installed, it will dramatically alter Peru as a nation and
would
be the most significant change in structure since
independence.
In the early 1990s, few Peruvians yet understood how the
new
system would work or what its impact would be. Because of
many
uncertainties created by the unstable political and
economic
conditions of the 1980s, both the Congress and the
government of
President Alberto K. Fujimori (1990- ) postponed putting
the full
plan into effect, although some aspects of the program had
begun
(see Local and Regional Government
, ch. 4).